


Mommy and Me

by LieselSolo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Good Parent Leia Organa, Good Parents Leia Organa and Han Solo, Light Angst, Mother-Son Relationship, Outing, Parents Leia Organa and Han Solo, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Young Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29971341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LieselSolo/pseuds/LieselSolo
Summary: Leia and Ben have a day out together.
Relationships: Ben Solo & Han Solo, Leia Organa & Ben Solo, Leia Organa & Ben Solo & Han Solo, Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Mommy and Me

Six-year-old Ben could hardly eat breakfast. With every other bite of cereal, he had to look up at his mother and grin and she and Han had to remind him that he needed to finish his breakfast. But how could he pay attention to food when he and Leia were going to spend _the whole day_ together? So many times Leia went to work early and came home late, but today she didn’t have to work and she would be taking Ben to the mall, just the two of them for the whole day.

Finally the family finished eating and Ben and Leia got ready to leave for the mall, though of course Leia and Han had to kiss goodbye first.

“You sure you can handle him by yourself?” Han asked in a murmur.

“Han, I handle political disputes on a daily basis – I think I can handle a day out with Ben. Besides, you deserve a break too.”

Han pretended to pout. “But what’m I s’posed to do without you?”

“Whatever you want!” said Leia, patting her husband’s shoulder. “Eat, sleep, watch the holovid – just don’t get drunk.”

Ben giggled, hugging his father’s legs. “Don’t worry Daddy, we’ll be back soon.”

“I know, kiddo,” said Han, getting on his knees so he could give his son a proper goodbye hug. “You and Mommy have fun together – and remember, you can always call Daddy if something’s wrong.”

. . .

Lunch in the food court consisted of bantha burgers, fries and cola. Ben’s cheeks puffed out oh-so-cute as he chewed his food, causing Leia to frequently ignore her own food in favor of watching her son eat. The pop music playing through the speakers and the colorful flags hanging from the ceiling gave off an air of happiness and relaxation that seemed to affect both Leia and Ben.

“You want some dessert?” Leia asked when they were finally finished. 

“Ice cream?” Ben asked, his grin showing his teeth colored orange from the sauce.

“Ice cream sounds great!” Leia exclaimed. “Let’s go get some!”

She took her son’s hand and they headed for the ice cream parlor with the big rainbow-colored cone lit up over the sign, feeling a slight chill emitting from the place as a result of the frozen concoctions that dwelled there. Ben was already grinning at the tubs of different flavors kept under the glass, each marked with a small holo of text describing the flavor.

“What would you like, Ben?” Leia asked as Ben pressed his face against the glass.

“Hmmmm,” said Ben. “Hmmmm, how bout . . . chocolate!” 

“Sounds great!” Leia responded before turning to the Mon Calamari vendor. “Two cups of chocolate, please.”

“All right,” said the vendor, smiling down at Ben. “Would you like any toppings?”

“Would you, Ben?” asked Leia. “Sprinkles, caramel, nuts?”

“No nuts,” said Ben. “I’m ‘lergic.”

Suddenly Leia’s stomach dropped. “Wait, what?”

“I’m ‘lergic to nuts,” Ben repeated before looking up at the vendor. “Chocolate chips and sprinkles, please.”

“All right,” said the vendor – if he noticed that Ben’s own mother didn’t know he was allergic to nuts, he didn’t show it. “Would your mom like the same thing?”

“Yes,” Leia mumbled, though she couldn’t look the vendor in the eye.

. . .

As soon as they got back to their table, Leia took out her holocom and punched in Han’s frequency. Once Han’s hologram appeared, Ben eagerly waved at his father.

“Hi Daddy!” Ben shouted, his mouth full of ice cream.

“Hey son!” said Han, waving back at him before turning to Leia. “How’s it goin’?”

“Did you know Ben’s allergic to nuts?” Leia asked in an exasperated voice.

Han looked at her as if she’d asked what number came after four. “Yeah, he gets an upset stomach when he eats nuts. Didn’t you know that?”

“How could I know that if no one told me??”

Han’s eye bulged. “I thought we _did_ tell you . . . didn’t we?”

Ben put his hand on his mother’s. “It’s okay, Mommy. I’m careful so I don’t eat nuts.”

Leia swallowed, willing herself not to tear up. “Maybe you did tell me . . . I don’t remember . . . how could I not know about my own son’s allergy??”

Suddenly Ben was wrapping his little arms around her. “Don’t worry Mommy, you know now!”

“Yeah!” said Han. “Listen to Ben. You know now and you’re not gonna let him eat nuts.”

Leia took a deep breath as she patted Ben’s head. “You’re right, I know now.”

. . .

After dessert, Ben took Leia’s hand and led her to the holoarcade, jumping with excitement about playing games and winning prizes. 

“C’mon, c’mon!” he shouted as he led his mother into the wide holoarcade with its aisles of games that seemed to go on forever, their holograms bursting out of the screens and lighting the room with an odd array of colors from racing games, fighting games, adventure games, games about jumping over snow boulders to rescue people from Wampas and games about somehow saving the galaxy by stacking colorful blocks. The music and sound from the various games combined with the laughter of kids and occasional cursing from older players created a constant background noise that was loud and yet not irritating.

“Can we play Rollball?” Ben asked so fast that his words ran together, pulling her towards the Rollball lanes where people rolled glowing balls towards targets, aiming for the small targets with the larger scores but rarely making it.

“Sure,” said Leia, handing her son a coin as she remembered playing Rollball at the holoarcades on Alderaan. “Let’s play together.”

Mother and son inserted their coins into adjacent machines, causing cheery music to play as the glowing balls came rolling towards the players.

“All right,” said Leia, taking a ball in her hand as her son did the same. She crouched over, swinging her arm back and forth, getting into the old muscle-memory of playing Rollball. “One, two, three, GO!”

They released their balls at the same time. Ben squealed as the balls went zooming down the aisles and jumping up the ramp to go flying into the targets. Leia’s landed squarely in the tiny fifty-point target while Ben’s landed in the larger ten-point target.

Ben’s mouth crumpled into a frown, but he grabbed another ball and threw it down the aisle. This time it landed in the twenty-point target.

“Wow!” Leia exclaimed. “Look, you got twenty points!”

“But YOU got _fifty_ points!” Ben shouted.

“Well . . . yes, but the game’s not over yet. You can still catch up!”

They continued the game, and despite Leia’s attempts to moderate her score so Ben would have a chance to catch up, she still ended up with 200 points while Ben ended with only seventy points. Her machine spat out twenty tickets while Ben’s only produced five.

Ben made _that noise,_ the high-pitched “mmmm” noise that meant he was a few seconds away from bursting into tears. “Ben, Ben!” Leia quickly said, kneeling down to her son’s level and handing him her tickets. “Look, you can have my tickets too! Do you want to play again and see if you can get more tickets?” 

Ben’s cheeks puffed out as he shook his head.

“Come on, sweetheart.” Leia couldn’t stop her voice from becoming desperate. “The more tickets you win, the more prizes you can get!”

With that, sobs exploded out of Ben’s mouth. “I CAN’T DO IT!” he shouted.

“Of _course_ you can, sweetie!” said Leia, wrapping her arms around her son. “You know what Uncle Luke says – practice, practice, practice!”

Ben sniffled. “Can you teach me to use the Force to move the balls?”

Leia sighed, wanting to tell her son that using the Force to move the balls was cheating, but figuring that it wouldn’t help the current situation. “Using the Force takes practice too,” she said. “Just like playing Rollball. Think about it – if you keep practicing Rollball _without_ using the Force, you’ll get better and better and better and you’ll have lots of tickets from practicing!” She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped Ben’s eyes and nose. “Come on, would you like to practice now?”

Ben sniffled again, grabbing the tissue and blowing his nose, but after a few lingering moments, he gave a small nod.

“There, that’s the spirit!” said Leia, smiling at her son. “Let’s practice – and you can have all the tickets we both win!”

. . .

They played several rounds of Rollball, during which Ben was able to raise his score to 100 points, and afterwards they played various other games before heading to the prize counter, where Ben traded his tickets for a couple of mini starship toys and a lollipop, which he sucked on all the way to the holofilm theater.

“One adult and one child for _Planet of Adventure,_ ” she told the protocol droid ticket vendor, naming the only holofilm currently playing that seemed appropriate for children. 

“Excellent,” said the droid. “That will be fifteen credits.”

Once Leia paid, she grinned down at Ben as she handed him his ticket. “Isn’t this exciting? I’ve heard that this is a great holofilm.”

Ben nodded sharply before removing the almost-gone lollipop from his mouth. “Yup, it is! Daddy and I saw it last week!”

“Wait . . . what?”

“Daddy took me to see it last week when you were workin’,” Ben repeated, cocking his head.

“So you’ve already seen it . . .” Leia felt as if a dark cloud had suddenly covered the sun. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ben shrugged. “I can see it again.” He grabbed his mother’s hand, pulling her towards the snack vendor. “C’mon, let’s get snacks!”

. . .

When they got home, Han of course swept Ben up in his arms as if it had been years since they’d last seen each other instead of a few hours. After smothering his son in kisses, he asked how Ben’s day was and Ben was eager to go through every detail of the outing. Leia, however, silently made her way to the living room and slumped down on the couch, staring blankly at the smashball game playing on the holovid.

She’d blown it. She had a chance to be a cool mom and she’d done everything wrong. No wonder Ben gravitated towards Han when he had problems. _Han_ was the one home all the time, _Han_ was the one who knew which holofilms Ben had seen and which foods he was allergic to, _Han_ was the one who didn’t have problems in the senate to deal with.

“Mommy?” 

Leia looked up and there was Ben standing next to her, gripping the mini toy starships he’d gotten at the holoarcade. “Mommy, why aren’t you smilin’?”

Leia swallowed, wanting to force a smile but realizing it was pointless since Ben could sense her feelings anyway. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I just . . . I wanted to give you a great day out and I did everything wrong.”

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes I _did!_ I didn’t know you were allergic to nuts, I made you cry at the holoarcade, I took you to a holofilm you’d already seen – everything went wrong!”

With that, Ben jumped into his mother’s lap and wrapped his arms around her neck. “Mommy, I had fun! I wanna do it again!”

“Yeah,” said Han, entering the room and sitting next to his wife. “He was just tellin’ me what a great time you guys had.”

“But I did everything wrong.”

“Hey,” said Han, putting his hand on his wife’s shoulder, “you think _I_ always do everything right? You didn’t know he was allergic to nuts – well how do you think _I_ found out about his allergy? I fed him nuts on a picnic and made him sick, so how do you think I felt after that?”

“Yeah,” said Ben. “Daddy got really sad when I got sick, but now we _all_ know I’m ‘lergic to nuts.” He kissed his mother’s cheek. “Remember, you said practice, practice, practice! Like Rollball!”

Leia took a deep breath, squeezing her son in a Mom hug and kissing his cheek back. “Yeah,” she said. “Like Rollball.”

Practice, practice, practice. Practice at Rollball and practice at parenting.

THE END


End file.
